My Journey to Godhood as a Caterpillar

Chapter 45: Empires are like sand castles

Yun Jhin started to enter into a deep sleep as his body circulated his ki cultivating technique by itself, by doing this he could cultivate faster and if anyone approached his formations he could wake up easily, but if he were to wake up too late he could be in trouble if someone with a higher cultivation base attacked him.

But Yun Jhin didn't do things without a backup plan, if anyone attacked his body they would trigger a formation that would instantly crush them to the ground due to increased gravity giving him enough time to wake up.

Yun Jhin looked down at this human form as he shook his head:

"Another review of memories?"

Yun Jhin looked as images appeared in front of him, darkness, blood, limbs his former lives came and went fast by his eyes, death, decay.

Lives lost, power gained, death by old age, hatred, a lot of hatred towards the universe at large.

Hatred for others, jealousy, power hunger, deep soul injuries that have been created through repeated reincarnations, his personality split and ruptured, craziness, death, reset.

Yun Jhin laughed as the images stopped appearing around him, he started meeting with his former personalities, most of them shouted at him clawed at his spiritual body and even tried to posses him to get ahold of his new body.

Yun Jhin stripped them of their memories transforming them into inner demons that he used to temper his soul with, however, they were now akin to poison but he didn't care as he looked at them almost brush their claws around his spiritual body.

Even if an older personality took over his body the memories from before would enter in the mold that was the empty personality and recreate his current personality, they were just empty egos he couldn't get rid of, they were useless and had no way to escape from his soul space.

Yun Jhin actually pitied them, after all, they were his former lives, the only one that he could pity would be himself, he always felt that the universe was against him, that he was unliked and unloved, he lashed out at people and said that he hated them but as he reincarnated more and more he realized that he was childish.

He didn't hate people, he hated circumstances, he hated how he was forced to act, he hated how he lived, as he grew stronger and stronger he became intoxicated with the feeling of power and being in control, that's what happened with most cultivators that reached the God Realm.

As he got into control of his destiny his further reincarnations reached the God Realm further and further, until his last one where he reached the peak of the God Realm, when he mastered all of the laws of creation that he could he looked back into his soul and opened the key that was locking his former reincarnations in place.

Pandemonium went loose, but Yun Jhin was stronger than all of the former reincarnations combined, he slashed their heads open metaphorically speaking and took out their memories.

All of his memories overloaded his soul to the point that it almost burst, but he went through with the help of some devils, he used the souls of 50 million people as a sacrifice to use the soul regulator machine of hell.

Of course, the devils almost killed him in his attempts to regain his sanity, after all, the devil's rarely made themselves sign contracts and the oldest devils could also break through them at a price, they thought that they would gain more than the price they paid for breaking the contract.

But they failed, Yun Jhin fused all of his memories and he became invincible, he slaughtered all of the devils that went against him and fed on their carcasses restoring the lifespan that he used to maneuver the soul regulator.

He left hell a complete man, he went on a rampage across the land finding all of the hiding fortuned people and slaughtering them like sheep, he even fought for years on with the peak God Realm fortuned people.

In the end, he didn't live enough to taste the last fortuned one and gain his way to breakthrough.

Eyes opened wide, Yun Jhin looked at his human arms as he muttered:

"Not done yet?"

Behind him a voluptuous woman with a big smirk on her face embraced him as she said slowly:

"Enjoyed the ride, honey?"

Suddenly the image broke up into a million pieces as he was thrown inside a deep blue ocean that cooled his mind, Yun Jhin looked around as he said:

"Such fragmented memories, it seems the soul leakage did some damage."

This wasn't supposed to happen, it seemed even though he closed the hole in his soul some of his memories were still gone, they seemed important too, but at the time he could have cared less...

What was so important?

Yun Jhin looked around the ocean as he sank to the ocean floor, but there was only darkness, nothing else, countless yellow eyes opened as claws went towards Yun Jhin, some of his former lives were here too, but they were deformed, broken shattered, nothing like the ones above the ocean, Yun Jhin knew the cause of this but he couldn't do anything about it.

The man sighed as he looked at the broken apparitions and then he closed his eyes. He disappeared from the ocean as he woke up in his room in the palace, 2 years went by since he went into that deep sleep and no one bothered him, his cultivation was ready to break through the 4th stage but he just needed a little push.

Yun Jhin unleashed his soul willpower around the whole capital as a wide smile appeared on his face:

"So many, so dense, such a fine bloodline amount... the explosion was a huge success."

Even though some of the cultivators went above his cultivation realm he had things planned for that as well.

After all, he killed King realm experts, why would some people around the 6-7th stage of the ki cultivating realm matter to him, even though they had draconic bloodlines they could only fight 1 or 2 stages above their own cultivation base, compared to Yun Jhin they weren't that strong, he could fight 4-5 stages above!

Yun Jhin made an announcement for a tournament to be held, rich resources were added as rewards and even imperial titles, Yun Jhin even said that he may appoint a successor to the throne from this tournament.

While the people were running towards the capital from around the country, Yun Jhin was busy settling many types of formations around the gigantic battle arena he created with the help of his subordinates, even though they grew stronger they already lent their souls to Yun Jhin or else he might have just killed them on the spot.

Countless amounts of people joined in the capital, a dark-haired young man that stood in the sea of men and women reminisced about the past as he thought:

"To think that explosion would do this to me..."

It was the same young man that triggered the dragon stone explosion, it wasn't known how he survived but somehow here he was, he didn't look different from a human, but there was an aura around him that made him different from the ones who only had an arm or a leg changed into a draconic one.

The young man followed the crowd towards the palace, and Yun Jhin went out to welcome them, his draconic body looked much more majestic now as he smiled towards his people as he said with a clear tone of voice:

"I welcome you, my people, to the tournament that I have decided to hold due to one reason!"

Yun Jhin stopped talking as he looked around for a little while before continuing:

"I wish to enter into a prolonged session of closed-door cultivation that would take too long, I need someone to act as the emperor while I'm gone, the session might even take my whole life for all I know, I seek to do multiple breakthroughs to reach the King Realm."

"With the information that I have spread around you should know all of the cultivations realms, I shall thank all of those who decided to join the tournament, the rules should already be known they weren't changed and they are the same as my subordinates have relayed to you."

Yun Jhin closed his mouth as he pointed with his claws towards a giant arena near the palace, his next shout rumbled as some weaker cultivators held their ears in pain:

"LET THE BATTLE ROYALE COMMENCE!"

The young man was the first to enter the arena, he had a smug smile on his face as he looked at all of his 'competition', he thought that he would become the first and inherit the throne for sure. After all, he wasn't a small rabble like most of them were.

Yun Jhin looked at them as they started fighting, punches kicks, cultivation techniques stacked to their full potential, draconic abilities thrown around, breath attacks, swords, halberds, fans, and other weapons strewn around the arena.

Yun Jhin closed his eyes for a brief moment before he opened them up again, the formation started roaring to life as it engulfed the downed unconscious bodies of 99% of the contestants, the only one who was up and about was the same young man that entered first, the one who triggered the explosion and brought forth this era of draconic cultivators.

Yun Jhin smiled as the young man looked around in puzzlement and anger as all of his opponents were sucked into the formation and transformed into beads of blood, he shouted towards Yun Jhin:

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"

Yun Jhin chuckled as he appeared in the arena, the formations didn't do anything to him.

The young man looked down at his chest as he saw a claw sliding out of it, his body was then sucked by the attraction force from the formation, he shouted as he clawed towards Yun Jhin, he had a crazed expression on his face as he said:

"WHYYY? DON'T YOU REALIZE THAT YOU HAVE CRIPPLED YOUR EMPIRE?"

Yun Jhin looked at the sky as some clouds went by and he said:

"Empire's ah, for me they are just like sandcastles, if I go to the beach, I can build a lot, and all it takes from me is one wave of the hand to destroy them, they are fragile but beautiful at the same time, and you get an accomplished feeling when you finish your sandcastle don't you?"

The young man didn't know what Yun Jhin talked about, he looked at him like he would look at a mad man, the formation was already sucking the blood out of him and transforming his body into the bead, he shouted as he tried to resist but Yun Jhin hit in the chest disabled his main acupoint where ki would go through.

The man cursed as his appearance changed, wings appeared out of his back as scales grew on his skin, his mouth became the muzzle of a dragon as his eyes turned into deep yellow slits, he groaned as the attraction force from the formation intensified.

Yun Jhin shook his head as he told him:

"You have just doomed yourself, I created this formation in mind that those with a higher concentration of draconic bloodline would get sucked faster inside than the others, you could have just hidden your bloodline and escaped, maybe..."

Yun Jhin was giving the young man false hope as he saw him struggling, but he realized he was already done, a vicious expression appeared on his face as he tried to self detonate his body, as he became a half draconic being.

He gained a draconic core in exchange for his human heart, draconic cores could be exploded if the dragons were in a perilous situation where they couldn't escape, they could take their foes down with them!

Yun Jhin smiled as he looked at his last attempt to get at him and he did a few hand seals, those hand seals manifested in a form of some runes that entered directly inside his body and sealed his draconic core.

Yun Jhin waved at him as he was transformed into a blood bead by the formation, Yun Jhin looked around as everyone that didn't go inside the arena looked horrified at his actions.

But he didn't care much, he took all of the beads inside his spatial bag and looked behind at the empire, they could still make more draconic bloodline descendants but with the dragon stone destroyed and most of the residue already absorbed, there was a very low chance for them to be talented.

The most talented was the young man he just absorbed inside his formation, he left the arena as he basked in the fearful gazes that looked at him, he decided to leave the empire alone, he had made use of them, with the help of so many draconic blood beads he would be able to evolve again, however, to go further down the path of the dragon he would need to eat pure draconic beings...

Pure draconic beings could morph into the form of the human and hide well in human society but Yun Jhin knew their hideout, however knowing their hideout and entering it were two different things.

Yun Jhin flew as he kept his spatial bags tied tight to him, there was no reason for him to stay in the Long Empire anymore, he had gained everything he could and the remaining things in the treasury had no use to him, he already razed them of their best herbs and spirit stones before he even did his announcement.

It was time to leave the lower continents and go for greener pastures. The number of benefits he gained here wasn't low but he was still disappointed, his greed was unmeasurable, but he thought he would feel better when he reached the upper continents.

But a hidden part of him always asked him: would he?

This was a question that Yun Jhin couldn't answer, he was a broken machine that tried to achieve his last goal, this was his last life, according to the system.

If he couldn't achieve eternal life this time, there wouldn't be a next, but in a small part of his consciousness he would welcome eternal rest, but the small part was overwhelmed by the insane desire of achieving true immortality.

Yun Jhin was truly a deranged individual but he grew to embrace that part of him, that's what made him truly strong.

That's what made him who he currently was.